I was one of those people who assumed/concluded that she did not complete the NYC marathon.
I realize nobody was ever able to explain why her trainer was seen and photographed many times on the course from start to finish, wearing a several-year-old race bib and a timing chip, yet she was only spotted very late in the course, lacking any semblance of sweat or physical exhaustion, and no visible timing chip. She/they finished in 5:29; him sweaty/ her looking fresh as a daisy. I agreed with the other conspiracy theorists who believed she must have cheated.
That said, here is my race report from yesterday:
I started out with Sarah, (IrongirlNyhus' sister, with whom I have run a few other marathons) and Mark (remember him from Phoenix?) Since it was a lovely day, the course was flat, and nobody was injured, we decided to run with-or-ahead-of, the 4:00 hour (9:06 pace) group. Here are our splits:
1- 9:09, 139 heart rate
2- 9:03; 151 hr
3- 9:04; 153 hr
4- 9:10; 164 hr
5- 9:01; 153 hr
6- 9:13; 152 hr
7- 9:02; 150 hr
By mile 8 Sarah and I determined we were getting tired, breathless, and just not having fun; this feeling we were feeling isn't at all why we run, and we would likely never be able to keep up this pace, considering we hadn't completed even one training run at anything faster than 10:00 miles.
So we said good bye to Mark and he kept on trucking and Sarah and I got swallowed up into the 4:10 (9:33) pace group and started running comfortably. We were just making new friends with our new group.....
8- 9:37; 149 hr
9- 9:51; 149 hr
...when Sarah let out a gasp and said "something just happened to my knee". So we stopped to stretch a bit. She was hardly able to get started again, but limped along being a good sport until we got to a medical tent.
10- 9:57; 141 hr
11- 11:36; 140 hr
As the 4:20 and 4:30 pace groups swallowed too, us we re-set our goal for the day to "just beat Katie Holmes."
12- 11:25; 139 hr
13- 11:26; 139 hr
We got to the next medical tent who gave Sarah an ace bandage and we wrapped up her screaming knee.
"Do you need help pushing over that sign?"
14- 13:51; 137 hr
15- 11:33; 132 hr
16- 12:51; 128 hr
17- 12:42; 126 hr
18- 12:45; 124 hr
We continued run/walking, and stopped a couple times to put ice into the bandage. By now we've been on the course a long long while and started searching out barbecues for food and beer. Then we get a txt from Mark who says he's walking. We txt back - "So are we! Where are you?" We caught up to him shortly and the three of us limped in. But we had fun! We met lots of neat people, sampled Norwegian fare like "lefse" - a potatoe-y flatbread thing, cookies, and I had a hot dog.
Mark and me trying to push over a tree. Grrrrr.
19- 13:30; 124 hr
20- 13:30; 126 hr
21- 13:30; 121 hr
We saw Betty (Sarah and Laura's mom), IronGreg and Zurich a couple times who offered encouragement and a couple of great hugs and endearing face licks. (well, Zurich did anyway.)
We were sort of feeling like we'd never get to the finish line at this rate, but we rationalized our going so slow because "remember, we did have a really good workout this morning already..."
Well... True.... ;-)
22- 14:22; 124 hr
23- 14:21; 118 hr
24- 14: 23; 118 hr
By now the barbecues are smokin' and Margheritaville was serving beer and a full service of other beverages, so Sarah had a beer and I had a margherita. 
We came upon Sarah and Laura's dad and he ran a little with us, but by now we were so close we just wanted to get to the FargoDome.
25- 13:01; 109 hr
26.2- 12:21; 110 hr
All said, it was a lovely morning. Aside from Mark feeling sick, and Sarah's aching knee, it was a fun way to spend the morning. Really, when can you run a marathon, attend barbecues, and post heart-rates at 109?! We still got a medal, took some great pictures, and we still beat Katie Holmes.
So now I can declare that, yes, you can finish a marathon looking fresh as a daisy. Katie did it in 5:29, and Sarah, Mark and I did it in 5:05. Fresh as a Daisy.
P.S. Laura did her personal best of 4:06 and Erin did her PR, too of 3:50. Congrats to everyone!
